Always Find You
by Takada Saiko
Summary: No matter what, Thor can always find Loki and he always will. Brotherly fluff. Pre-Thor. R&R please!


A/N: So, by now everyone's seen the preview for Thor 2. Leave it to Gabrielle Day to catch one of the most terrifying possibilities in the short clip: She thinks that at the scene when Malekith (?) is asking what Thor is willing to sacrifice, and it looks like he has Jane and it _looks like_ Thor is falling to his knees just before screaming... She thinks that's Loki falling and I'm inclined to agree. There's a scene just before that I believe where you see Loki stumbling out ahead of Thor and Jane. It makes me so afraid for this movie. It needs to be here. Now. Now. They need to release it early.

Ahem. Anyway. So, what do I do with all of the Loki-angst that is happening because of this trailer? I write brotherly fluff. I should be finishing my Harry Potter fic, or, even better, working on my novel, but nooooo... I write Thor and Loki fluffy goodness. Bah. I just can't stay away.

* * *

**Always Find You**

As days go, this one had been particularly miserable. It had begun before dawn with Thor pulling him from bed, excitedly telling him that he was going to teach _him_ something that morning. Loki was sure the idea had struck him sometime in the middle of the night and it had surely taken every ounce of self restraint that the elder prince possessed not to barge in any earlier.

Thor had nearly dragged his smaller brother along in his excitement, urging him towards one of the smaller arenas with the brilliant idea that he was going to take the morning to teach Loki to fight. "Egil and Hakon offered to help!" the blond had announced upon arrival, motioning to two boys that had become friendly with him during sparring practice. Loki had no use for them as any intellect that they might possibly possessed seemed aimed at finding ways to bully him and get away with it. If they ever turned that energy to the rest of their studies they might have made their tutors proud. Though in Thor's defense, he was sure that his new friends were simply trying to help.

Their _help_ landed the younger prince of Asgard very scraped and bruised a few hours later, with a rather nasty gash across his left shoulder from a barely-dodged blow from Hakon. The boy had gotten a good laugh at it, heading Loki's escape off by a well-placed boot to the back and slamming him back down into the dust.

He looked to his elder brother, silently pleading for help.

"Stop running and fight them, Loki!" Thor grumbled, looking slightly irritated that his younger brother had barely lifted the sword.

"I _can't_! Not the way you expect me to!" Loki snapped, frustration lacing his voice. When they had been much younger, Loki had shot up in height quickly, but now other boys had now caught up to him. As quickly as they were growing up they were filling out, leaving the much thinner prince looking smaller than the rest. Even with his cleverness, if he were expected to withhold his magic from the fight there was little he could do other than wear his opponent down. Any attempt to hit them head-on as Thor was encouraging landed him straight back on the ground.

"Of course you can. Are you a son of Odin or aren't you?"

The younger prince felt his face burn with embarrassment as the other boys sniggered and settled in as if there would be a show.

"Show him what a _real_ son of Odin fights like, Thor!" Egil challenged.

The two boys egged the elder prince on and the blond moved forward. Loki was busy brushing off his clothes when his brother stopped in front of him, taking him by the arms to straighten him up and grabbing hold of his hand that loosely held the sword in it to make him bring it up into a fighting stance. After taking a step back and positioning himself with his own weapon he grinned broadly, still being cheered on from behind. "Now come at me."

Loki rolled his eyes. "You know what will happen if I come at you like that."

"Yeah, you'll be forced to fight him rather than trick him like a coward!" Egil called, his laughter quickly joined by Hakon.

"I'm not a coward! Loki growled. "I fight differently than you do, that doesn't mean I'd be any less useful."

"Loki," Thor murmured lowly so that the others could not hear. "Just try. You don't want them thinking you're weak."

"I'm not weak."

"Then show them. Come straight at me."

Thor thought he was helping, he really did, but they had been down this road before. Loki did as his brother commanded and found himself flat on his back when their swords collided. Thor simply had more weight to throw against him, and if he were confined to his brother's way of fighting without his brother's strength, he would lose every time.

Loki slammed down into the ground, injured shoulder scraping against it and he let out a muffled cry of pain. At the sound of the other boys' laughter he stood up and, almost too quickly for anyone to follow, had pulled a pair of sharp, thin daggers from his vest. They flew the air with deadly accuracy, prodded by magic to split apart just before they hit and, instead of doing serious damage, left an angry, bleeding cut along either boy's cheek bone. They stood and stared at the younger prince, eyes wide.

"I am not a coward and I am not weak!" the dark haired Asgardian yelled, a burst of magic escaping and knocking them to the ground.

Thor moved to his friends, helping them up. "Don't be so sensitive, Loki. It was just a bit of fun," he growled, turning towards his brother.

Green eyes caught blue and Thor could not find his voice when he saw the hurt and betrayal in them. After a moment his brother turned and stormed away, allowing the sword to simply drop onto the dusty arena ground. The blond prince stooped to pick it up, still silent.

"He'd never amount to any kind of warrior anyway," Hakon grumbled, wiping the blood from his face.

Thor's eyes flashed and the wind picked up around them from a cloud that seemed to have appeared very suddenly on the clear day. "Have care how you speak of my brother. He might fight differently than you, but he was the one that could have ended your lives today had he chosen to."

Thor left them there, wide-eyed and confused at what had just happened even as the cloud opened up above and dropped its rain down around them.

* * *

Loki shifted closer to the trunk of the tree that he had buried himself in the branches of in his mother's favorite garden. They sky had grown dark and he thought Thor might be angry with his abrupt departure as lightning lit the sky and thunder followed nearly directly after it. He frowned and decided that if his brother wanted him down he would have to strike him out of his hiding place.

The raindrops began falling thick and wet against the soft ground beneath him. The branches above shielded him from most of it, but he wiped a dirty sleeve across his face anyway, finding it damp as he pulled it away. Everything was beginning to hurt on him and he could feel his shirt glued to his back where the blood had dried on his shoulder.

"Loki?"

Green eyes blinked and he wiped at his face again. Thor stood below, looking up but could not possibly see him clearly. Perhaps if he merely stayed silent he could wait him out.

"I know you're up there. If you don't answer I'll come up myself."

"Go away," Loki snapped, burying his face against his knees.

The sound of shifting branches and Thor's grunts answered him, and before he could say anything else the blond prince was sitting on the branch next to him. "Are you crying?"

"No, your stupid temper tantrum has gotten me wet."

"_My_ tantrum?" the thunder god asked with a chuckle. "I'm not the one who stormed off after nearly taking two counselors' son's heads off with a hidden dagger. When did you start carrying those anyway?"

Loki shrugged.

A long stretch of silence followed as Loki sulked and Thor watched. The younger prince, after a few moments, began taking control of the drops of water that were falling from the leaves above and held them in the air, allowing them only the barest movements as they formed the images he chose. No words were needed to work his magic. They hadn't been in a very long time.

"I know you're angry with me," Thor said at last.

The raindrops turned to ice and slashed through any leaves that might have been in their way of their quick descent to the ground.

"Whatever gave you _that_ idea?"

Thor grimaced, thinking that Loki may have imagined him as the leaves. He closed his eyes for a moment before forcing himself to look at his younger brother. "I'm sorry."

This caught the dark haired boy's attention. "You're... _what_?"

Thor snorted and shook his head. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought them in like that. They did hurt you, didn't they. How's your shoulder?"

"It's fine."

"Do they do that sort of thing when I'm not around?"

"When they can," Loki admitted softly. "My magic instructor told me that if she caught me using it on anyone that she'd throw me out faster than the last instructor, so I'm careful. Sometimes that means they catch me."

Thunder rolled overhead.

"Loki, I'm sorry."

"Stop saying that. It's not normal."

"But I am! I won't let them near you again."

Loki's lips parted to explain, but then he closed them again, shaking his head in frustration. It wasn't just them. He couldn't pinpoint it, but it seemed everywhere he turned that people found new reasons to distrust him, new reasons to mock him and to hate him. It was mostly his magic instructors, men that their father kept in close counsel, and, more recently, their children had echoed the same dark feelings. He didn't think he he'd done anything to warrant it, but at some point he couldn't be sure. He knew Thor wouldn't understand. The kingdom loved him. The first born. The chosen prince, even if nothing had ever been said out loud. He was their golden prince and Loki was merely the standby. The spare, if things went terribly, terribly bad someday.

"How did you find me?" the smaller boy asked after a few moments, deciding that a change of subject was what they needed.

Thor blinked, having been fixated on the rain as he gave his brother room to shift through his thoughts. He smiled after a moment. "I can always find you, Loki. You're my brother and, even if sometimes it is a bit delayed, I will always watch out for you. I will always find you."

Loki sniffed again and glanced over to where his brother had settled onto his own branch so that he was leaned back against the trunk. He looked very happy with himself, sheltered by the rain that his anger at brought on. It was strange how quickly his moods changed and how simple his pleasures seemed to be at times, but it did seem as if one thing was for certain: no matter what anyone else thought, no matter if he had difficulty knowing exactly how to show it, Thor would always be there for his younger brother. He would always find him.

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END.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed. You know me, I'm a review addict. I'd greatly appreciate them XD


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